Humor(?) + Rants + Lament

Dept. of Shameless Joke-Stealing

Real headlines, courtesy of Reader's Digest, June 2019

• "Man Who Jumped Out of Freezer & Died Was Cold-Case Suspect"
• "Body Found at Base of Cliff Near Mount Rushmore. The Only Four Witnesses Remain Stone-Faced"

GOMER * Returns

• "Forgiving" all student debt is a bad idea & patently unfair. Not only would it add trillions to our national debt, but it would nullify all those students who have paid off their college debt.
• Reparations for slavery is a bad idea. It also would add trillions to our national debt. Should those Americans whose ancestors fought for the North in the Civil War be forced to help fund reparations? What about black Americans whose ancestors were both slaves & owned slaves themselves? Would they receive reparations? What about all the other "victims," like Native Americans? Don't they deserve reparations, as well?
• Abortion is evil. It ends the life of an unborn child. It's telling that the loudest politicians who support abortion rights are also the largest beneficiaries of the largesse of Planned Parenthood, the leading abortion provider.
• Fireworks are already legal in our community of Norfolk, Nebraska. That means that (1) our dog is already a neurotic mess; & (2) just as we're settling down to sleep we're victimized by explosions that would make artillery barrages look tame.
• I have no great love for Michigan U, which is a rival of the Cornhuskers in the Big 10. Having said that, I would love to see a member of the Big 10 win the College World Series. Enough domination by schools from the South, who enjoy an unfair advantage over schools from the North!
• We're looking forward to a family reunion in Omaha this weekend, which will include a trip to the world famous Henry Doorly Zoo on Saturday, BUT temperatures are supposed to be in the 90s!
• I just read that the snowpack in the Rockies is almost at unprecedented levels, but I know that this can't possibly be a refutation of global warming. We know that ALL extreme weather is caused by global warming.

* Grumpy Old Men & Their Elucidating Rants

Lament

Yet it has been said that “the cry of pain is our deepest acknowledgment that we are not home.” The author continues, “We are divided from our own body; our own deepest desires; our dearest relationships. We are separated and long for utter restoration. It is the cry of pain that initiates the search to ask God, ‘What are you doing?’ It is this element of a lament that has the potential to change the heart.”(2) If this is true, then the overwhelming sorrow or feelings of bitterness over having to deal with what feels like more than one’s share of the harsh yet inevitable realities of life are, in fact, the crucible for real change. The same waters of despair that seek to drown and overwhelm can become the waters of cleansing. And in the midst of lament, the writers of Scripture give witness to the overwhelming compassion of God: “For if [the LORD] causes grief, then He will have compassion according to his abundant lovingkindness.”(3) Perhaps in the one who was described as a man of sorrows, who was acquainted with grief, lament offers a crucible in which we might experience a broader compassion and care. Indeed, his way of sorrow may yet have its own way of transformation.
--Margaret Manning Shull, Slice of Infinity